Vraka

Inv. no. 284: Black vraka (breeches). It features the characteristic middle part, which is longer and made of rich fabric with many folds. This was called vakla (meaning the fat tail of the Cyprus sheep) and it was usually tucked inside the waist sash at the back and untucked when entering a church. The vraka was dyed by local craftsmen called poyiatzides (Papadimitriou 1991, 41). It is gathered at the waist, where a white cotton drawstring, the vrakozoni, passed through the hem using a wooden stick called vrakorehtis, is tied at the front.